A Day Cursed With Bad Luck (5)

‘Ah… this won’t work.’

The two of them looked seriously worn out. No major injuries showed at a glance, but they had plenty of small ones. Their hair was a mess, and their breathing was ragged.

‘So much for letting them handle it while I finish the other one.’

Her original plan was to hand the healthy juvenile Flightless Wyvern over to the two of them, then go cut the throat of the other one that still couldn’t rise from its near-death state.

But seeing them like this, that plan was unrealistic. In their current condition, they’d probably only manage to endure against a fully healthy wyvern.

Besides, the near-death juvenile Flightless Wyvern still had plenty of time before it could recover and stand. It would be better to help the two C-rank hunters kill the healthy one first.

‘Even if I go for its neck alone, it’s not like I can finish it instantly.’

Having assessed the situation in a heartbeat, Hyeonseong stopped running, turned around, and faced the healthy juvenile Flightless Wyvern again.

“Where’s the other one?”

The Destroyer asked as she leveled her axe at the juvenile Flightless Wyvern.

“Over there. It’s not dead, but it’ll be safe for a while.”

“What do you mean?”

This time, the Mage asked. She raised an ice barrier in front of the three of them. A grinding sound followed—wind magic that cut and sanded like blades crashing against it.

“That one’s in a near-death state right now, with a bunch of debuffs on it.”

“Near-death? How the hell did you—?”

The Destroyer asked, shocked.

“It’s a long story.”

At that moment, cracks began spreading across the ice barrier. It had been thrown up in a hurry, so it was thin—of course it would break fast.

Before it shattered into fragments, all three of them backed away from it. The moment they cleared the distance, the barrier was destroyed by wind magic.

“Anyway, let’s kill this one first. You can see it—its eyes are pretty much rolled back. If you’ve got one more hand helping, you can manage, right?”

Hyeonseong pulled out a hoe from Infinite Corridor—one of her precious “three sacred tools.”

“A helping hand depends on the hand…”

The Destroyer shot a dubious sideways glance at the hoe in Hyeonseong’s grip.

“So you can do it. Then let’s go. First—tell me your condition!”

The juvenile Flightless Wyvern stomped twice, then fired off a storm of wind blades. The ground shuddered as a slicing gale swept in.

Hyeonseong barely steadied herself, dodged, and rolled along the ground—without forgetting to shout at them.

“Twenty minutes… If we force it, maybe thirty. Past that, my stamina won’t hold.”

“Same. If it goes past thirty, I won’t have mana left.”

The Destroyer and the Mage gave their status in turn.

“When you say ‘endure,’ you mean literally endure?”

After rolling once, Hyeonseong sprang up and opened the Infinite Corridor partition where she’d stored the wind arrows.

Come to think of it, she didn’t need to roll every time anymore. For magic attacks like this, she could just swallow them with Infinite Corridor.

Even so, whenever an attack came, she instinctively tried to dodge first. Habits were terrifying.

‘Same as this new ability. If I’ve got it, I should actually use it.’

“…Yeah, but what did you just do?”

The Destroyer asked, bewildered. She must’ve seen Hyeonseong swallow the wind blades.

“Exactly what you saw. If that’s your endurance limit, then what’s your limit by damage?”

As Hyeonseong swallowed an attack right in front of it, the juvenile Flightless Wyvern stomped and slammed its tail against the ground in a tantrum. Anyone could tell it was furious.

‘From here on, it’ll switch to physical—’

Before she even finished thinking that, the juvenile Flightless Wyvern charged straight at her. Hyeonseong immediately dodged toward the Destroyer.

“For a while, it’ll probably come at us with mostly physical attacks.”

“What the—”

“Hey. Explain properly, will you?”

The Mage snapped, irritation sharp in her voice.

“Yeah. All we’ve seen is stuff that makes no sense.”

The Destroyer backed her up.

Hyeonseong sighed. With the monster raging right in front of them, was this really the time to argue details?

“Looks like you’ve got room to worry about that. I don’t!”

Hyeonseong yelled as she barely rolled away from the wyvern’s tail, whipped like a lash.

“Right now, forget that—just—ow!”

Because the monster had closed the distance, attacks kept pouring in.

It stomped rapidly, swung its tail, and occasionally screamed—its voice carrying small shockwaves.

Hyeonseong dodged the relentless physical barrage in a blur. Trying to talk while dodging meant her sentences never quite finished.

“Just grab it already! Somebody hold that thing!”

In the end, she had to skip everything and shout only the conclusion. This was why she hadn’t wanted to explain from the start.

The Destroyer and the Mage began firing attacks to check the juvenile Flightless Wyvern, apparently understanding that was the urgent priority.

‘Okay—now I can breathe.’

As the two of them sent aura-infused force and several ice spears at the wyvern, the pressure eased a little. The juvenile Flightless Wyvern properly registered them as threats.

‘Still not enough. I need an opening—something to hit the neck or a vital.’

She needed to stop its movement even briefly, or at least create a gap big enough for them to prepare a decisive strike.

She’d already figured out how to make that gap. Hyeonseong tightened her grip on the hoe’s handle.

Hyeonseong charged toward the juvenile Flightless Wyvern. She had to close the distance she’d opened while running.

‘They said 20–30 minutes of endurance. And they’re dealing with a berserk target head-on.’

Combine their condition with the monster’s frenzy, and the conclusion was immediate:

For a while, they couldn’t use wide-area attacks that might not distinguish friend from foe, or heavy attacks with high miss risk.

Which meant Hyeonseong could approach without worrying about getting caught in friendly fire. She gritted her teeth and pushed in close.

Soon she was right beside the juvenile Flightless Wyvern. The Destroyer, holding her axe forward while maintaining a defensive skill, stared at Hyeonseong in alarm.

Hyeonseong ignored her and latched onto the wyvern’s torso.

“What are you doing—?!”

The Destroyer shouted, but Hyeonseong let it pass.

‘Those scales are definitely hard. Now…’

She grabbed a large scale with her bare hand and hauled herself upward. Despite looking smooth, it was surprisingly grippable.

‘Still, climbing with a tool is easier, right?’

Next was the swing. Hyeonseong snapped her arm, driving the hoe into a higher gap between scales.

After wedging the hoe between scales, Hyeonseong checked the wyvern’s reaction.

At that moment, the juvenile Flightless Wyverns turned—and their eyes met.

‘…Oh.’

Hyeonseong casually poured strength into her arm and shoulder. Her body lifted.

The leverage was better than pulling with bare hands; she rose more easily.

Then the juvenile Flightless Wyvern stomped and tapped its tail against the ground—an angry tell.

‘Damn it!’

It was more sensitive than she’d expected. Hyeonseong stretched her free hand upward, swung the hoe again and again, and scrambled up the wyvern’s body.

The juvenile Flightless Wyvern shook itself violently, trying to throw her off.

“Ugh—hold still already!”

Hyeonseong clenched her teeth. She didn’t fall, but getting whipped around made nausea churn in her stomach.

“What are you two doing down there?! It’s going berserk!”

Pausing at a spot where she could at least hold on, Hyeonseong shouted at the two C-rank hunters.

They hurriedly attacked. The Destroyer’s axe went for the wyvern’s throat, and the Mage’s ice spears aimed at its eyes and crown.

But both attacks were nullified. The juvenile Flightless Wyvern shrieked—a cry loaded with shockwave force—and knocked the axe and ice spears away.

Hyeonseong was outside the shockwave range, but the scream itself was so loud her ears stung, and she frowned.

‘…Still, it calmed down a little.’

Hyeonseong snapped back to focus and continued crawling up its back.

By the time the juvenile Flightless Wyvern sensed her again, Hyeonseong was already seated on the very top of its head.

Realizing where she was, it shook its head to fling her off.

“Too late, you little bastard!”

The moment it tried, Hyeonseong folded her torso low. She grabbed a scale with her bare hand, then raised the hoe high.

-KRRAAAAGH!

The hoe point stabbed straight into the juvenile Flightless Wyvern’s eye. As the blade pierced the eyeball, it let out a shriek like a scream.

‘My ears are going to explode.’

No fear effect, no shockwave—just sheer volume. Even that alone was oppressive. Hyeonseong felt her head ring.

“Ghk… What are you doing?! Hit it—now!”

Teeth clenched, Hyeonseong shouted down at the two of them.

She ignored the Constellation chatter. No sponsorship meant she didn’t care.

This was the opening she’d wanted.

Even adult dragons could have eyes as a weak point—so for a juvenile, unless she had terrible luck, it had to work.

And it did. The juvenile Flightless Wyvern couldn’t think straight after getting its eye gouged. It thrashed wildly, but it wasn’t calmly casting spells or planning.

The two hunters seemed to understand. They moved into position.

The Mage acted first. Frost began spreading across the wyvern’s nape—like a white collar being snapped around its neck.

Then the Destroyer roared and leapt. Her axe swung in a huge arc and struck exactly where the frost had gathered.

A heavy metallic clang rang out. Then the scales on the nape cracked and shattered, falling away in chunks.

‘Some kind of rapid-freeze brittleness skill?’

Only the frosted scales were breaking, so it looked like a spell that froze a surface into a fragile state.

The juvenile Flightless Wyvern screamed again, thrashing even harder.

‘Ugh… motion sickness…’

For Hyeonseong, clinging to the top of its head, it was pure hell. Even if her stats were “only” around D-rank, getting nauseous from this felt absurd.

‘…Still, the more it thrashes, the worse its eye pain gets.’

Despite the nausea, Hyeonseong tightened her grip and shoved the hoe deeper into the eyeball. With the wyvern shaking, it actually sank in easier with less effort.

Unable to shake her off, the juvenile Flightless Wyvern kept whipping its head and stomping. It seemed to have no bandwidth left to attack the other two.

Soon the Destroyer jumped again, axe in hand—reading the timing without Hyeonseong needing to signal.

She swung hard once more, chopping into the exposed nape where scales were gone. The axe bit into raw flesh.

“HYAAAH!”

The Destroyer bellowed and forced power through her arm and shoulder.

White aura coated the axe blade. The aura-wrapped edge carved through the juvenile Flightless Wyvern’s neck.

The system message confirmed the kill.

Hyeonseong immediately yanked the hoe out of the wyvern’s eye. With its head separating from its body, the head slipped—pulling Hyeonseong down with it.

As Hyeonseong fell with the wyvern’s head, the Destroyer caught her.

They’d been ready for the fall, but being caught was still easier. Hyeonseong thanked her and landed on her own feet.

“Urgh… I seriously thought I was going to die.”

Hyeonseong grimaced, still nauseous.

“Only one left, right? Let’s finish it fast and get out.”

As she spoke, she stored the juvenile Flightless Wyvern’s corpse in Infinite Corridor.

It was a shame one eye was ruined and some scales were damaged, but there was still plenty worth harvesting. If she brought the body back, her share would be significant.

“That’s true, but…”

The Destroyer and the Mage stared at Hyeonseong with clear demand for an explanation.

“Let’s move first. We had some breathing room earlier, but who knows what’s changed.”

Hyeonseong pointed toward where the near-death juvenile Flightless Wyvern was. The two of them agreed.